Guinness Special Export (Belgian version)

Brewed by St. James’s Gate (Diageo)
Style: Foreign Stout
Dublin, Ireland

Very black beer with a creamy tann foam. Fine roasted aroma’s and hints of black coffee. Taste is burned bitterish, blackend sweet bread, tout with nice fizzy caracter.

Darkly pitched in black with periodic flashes of brown tinting. Lofty huge dark tan top of smoothed over foam. Stays at the helm forever and a day and never leaves its seat, fanning out eventually to leave enormous amounts of thick lacing. Well rounded aroma of dark cocoa and milk chocolate with a light roasted quality and even lighter fruity notions of cherries and figs. Flavor is quite full of action from front to back. Slender and dark fruity front, sweetly sided undertones at first, then, bold and creamy, big roasted chocolate cake center, dry and bittering finish with burnt crusty edges of roasted malts and grains. Turns to smoke, charcoal, tar, coffee grounds, and dry licorice spice as it cinders off into the finish. Wonderfully complex and layered with fun roasty flavors. A great whirlwind at the finish totally knocks it out of the park. Feel is rich, thick, and velvety with a unique sweet under carriage that keeps a very nice balance. The roast never really completely takes over but makes great efforts to do so. The body of this stout continues to grow in texture as it warms, becoming creamier and warmer in cocoa returns towards the finish as does the coffee grade. A fantastic beer. The true Guinness! So truly sad that many here in the states don’t realize what they think and drink as the "Original" - isn’t actually what it should and could be. Oh well...

Pours an opaque black with a frothy tan head. Bready malty toffee aroma has some dark chocolate and honey undertones. Starts with some sticky sweet maltiness, a viscous palate, and a milk chocolatey finish. Nicely balanced and very drinkable and hides the alcohol very well.

Poured a very dark brown with a medium tan head. Sweet roasted aroma with tart chocolate. Almost like a chocolate salt water taffee. Also reminds me of chocolate liquer. Flavor was soft and acidic, almost creamy. Roasted chocolate pudding comes to mind. Medium bodied. Dry roasted bitter finish. WOW! Pure surprise. I need some more of these.

Strong malty aroma features notes of raisins and chocolate. Opaque brown-black body with thick, dense, lasting, fine-bubbled, tan-brown head that coats the glass. Chocolatey malts and nutty marzipan sweetness are nicely balanced with strong roastiness with a background of raisin-like esters and resiny hops. Medium body is very dry with strong, almost aggressive, pointy carbonation that prickles the tongue. Bottle sampled at the White Horse on Parson’s Green in London during GBBF 2005.

Darkest beer with a long lasting head, black body. Roasted malt flavor, bit spicy. Very high alcohol percentage (8% ABV) in comparison with the original Guinness (4.2% ABV).

Nearly black, with a nice steady tan head. Sweet smell, just a hint of roasted malts. Flavor is sweet again, a bit hard to detect other flavours but roasted malt because of the high level of carbonation. Still, despite all this, still a very pleasant beer.

30 c bottle. Sweet flavor with licorice and hints of smoked herring. No chocolate flavor. Bitter finish. Mouth feel is nice and oily and carbonation too powerful.